Aaron Freiwald, Managing Partner of Freiwald Law and host of the weekly podcast, Good Law | Bad Law, is joined by Adam Winkler, a UCLA law professor and author of the new book “We The Corporations.” Aaron and Adam discuss the constitutional rights of corporations in America.

Wait, the what? The First Amendment is often thought of as protection for citizens; it guarantees freedom of religion, speech and freedom of speech. We don’t often think about those rights being extended to corporations. The same is true for many of the rights guaranteed by the Constitution.

Of course, that is exactly what happened in 2010 when the Supreme Court decided the controversial Citizens United case, allowing corporations to donate vast sums to political campaigns because, the Court found, corporations have speech rights. As Adam explains, this case has a very long history. Indeed, the Supreme Court has been protecting the rights of corporations for longer than the rights of many individual Americans. Citizens United, Masterpiece Cakeshop and Hobby Lobby, are just a few cases that have passed through our court system addressing the issue of corporate rights.